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J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

An unwanted guest visiting an isolated home is murdered. A dark tale of secrets, manipulation and tragic fate with many intriguing and mysterious characters.

Cathy Barratt

Anncona Media AB

Interactive Media

Gothic Library

The Evil Guest

In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella In a Glass Darkly: The Room in The Dragon Volant, the author employs a variety of narrative techniques to explore themes of love, loss, and redemption. Through the utilization of psychological realism and gothic elements such as spectral apparitions, Le Fanu presents an allegorical study of female agency within a patriarchal society.

Elizabeth Klett

In a Glass Darkly Volume 2: The Room in The Dragon Volant

In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's In a Glass Darkly: Green Tea, the author utilizes a variety of narrative techniques to explore the psychological implications of supernatural forces on the protagonist. Through his use of metafiction, Le Fanu successfully conveys the concept that the human psyche is vulnerable to manipulation from forces beyond our understanding.

In a Glass Darkly Volume 1: Green Tea

M.G. Lewis

Newly arrived in Madrid, Leonella and her niece Antonia visit a church to hear the sermon of a celebrated priest, Ambrosio, and while waiting tell their story to two young men, Don Lorenzo and Don Christoval. Antonia's Grandfather is the Marquis de las Cisternas, who was unhappy with his son’s marriage, causing her parents to flee, leaving their young son behind only to be told a month later he has died. Leonella has come to Madrid to convince the Marquis’ son, Raymond de las Cisternas, to resume their pension, which has been cut off.

The Monk: A Romance

Silas's past holds a dark mystery: the suspicious suicide of a man to whom Silas owed an enormous gambling debt, which took place within a locked, apparently impenetrable room in Silas's mansion at Bartram-Haugh. Austyn is firmly convinced of his brother's innocence.

Great Plains

Uncle Silas

The gothic story is narrated by a young woman Laura preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. Laura lives in a picturesque and solitary castle amid an extensive forest in Styria. Her father is a wealthy English widower retired from service to the Austrian Empire.

Carmilla

A Stable for Nightmares, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, is an exemplary example of Gothic literature that explores the subliminal elements of human psychology in an effort to uncover our innermost fears. The narrative centres around a mysterious stable and its strange inhabitants, which Le Fanu employs as a metaphor to subvert traditional notions of morality and justice.

A Stable for Nightmares

The Watcher And Other Weird Stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a collection of Gothic horror tales that explore the intersection between the supernatural and the psychological. Through its exploration of preternatural events, uncanny characters, and mysterious atmospheres, this text contributes to the discourse of fin de siècle literature while also engaging with issues of gender, power, and morality.

The Watcher And Other Weird Stories

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales: Schalken the Painter is a classic piece of horror fiction that has become a cornerstone of the Gothic genre. The novella focuses on a young Dutch painter, Godfried Schalken, and his betrothed, Rose Velderkaust, as they confront mysterious supernatural forces which threaten to rob Rose of her agency and autonomy.

Ghostly Tales Volume 1: Schalken the Painter

The novella The Cock and Anchor by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a prime example of the gothic mode of narrative. It incorporates themes of supernatural horror, psychological suspense and repressed emotions, all elements that are characteristic of the genre. Le Fanu's work also features a strong focus on the exploration of morality and faith, as exemplified by his representation of the protagonists' inner conflicts.

The Cock and Anchor

Two Ghostly Mysteries by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a collection of Gothic horror stories that explore the duality between the material and spiritual realms. Through his use of supernatural elements, Le Fanu examines themes such as guilt, oppression, and retribution. As a master of the genre, he incorporates psychological manifestations in his writing to create an atmosphere of dread and suspense.

Two Ghostly Mysteries

Within the last eight years—the precise date I purposely omit—I I was ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it by a railway.

Ghostly Tales Volume 2: A Haunted House

In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's work In a Glass Darkly: Carmilla, the reader is presented with a gothic narrative that subverts traditional gender roles, exploring themes such as the abjection of female desire and heteronormative anxieties. Through its use of the supernatural and horror aesthetic, Le Fanu's novella illustrates how patriarchal structures attempt to control female sexuality.

In a Glass Darkly Volume 3: Carmilla

Ghostly Tales: The Haunted Baronet by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a canonical text in the Gothic literature genre, renowned for its exploration of the supernatural and psychological horror. Through its intricate use of epistolary structure and narrative framing devices, Le Fanu's tale presents a masterful tapestry of oppressive atmosphere, suspenseful plot twists and an overarching sense of psychosomatic unease.

Ghostly Tales Volume 3: The Haunted Baronet

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales: The Mysterious Lodger is a text which engages with the concept of the supernatural in order to explore ideas of the uncanny and to interrogate prevailing notions of morality. As such, it presents a narrative which is imbued with a sense of ambiguity, creating tension by blurring the boundaries between the natural and supernatural realms.

Ghostly Tales Volume 4: The Mysterious Lodger

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella, 'Laura Silver Bell', is a classic example of the literary genre known as 'ghostly tales'. This work has often been regarded as a masterpiece in its genre due to its ability to evoke a sense of terror and suspense through its supernatural elements. Using a combination of vivid imagery and psychologically complex characters, Le Fanu creates an uncanny atmosphere which serves to heighten the horror of the narrative.

Gothic Library - The book series

Gothic Library - The book series

Gothic Library books in order

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